Messed!Up
American Independence Day celebrations in Camp Vienna United, new shoes to the editor’s sore feet, massive drinks at Gringo Bar, football hooligan punk attitude with Slaves and a “punch in the face” show with brutal industrial rock classics by Nine Inch Nails. The fifth day at the Roskilde festival in summary.
What is striking about the Roskilde Festival is the familiar feeling you get when meeting those working at the festivals. Each and everyone is joyful and seem to know each other in the same way you know your neighbor. The truckdriver who delivers beer steps out of his truck to have a coffee with the security guards, the local police join in for a dance to some hip hop beats in one of the DJ camps, entry guards hugging people going through the gates when the doors open and many more similar stories adding to this amazing atmosphere labeled “The Orange Feeling”. Such a friendly atmosphere is something rarely seen at festivals.
The fifth day at the festival was about the start of the “real” festival with many headliners going on stage. But before the concerts there was an American Independence Day to celebrate.
Camp Vienna United activities
July 4th is probably nothing more than an ordinary festival day for most people but with the presence of Camp Wolfpack, whose members originates from the former British colony across the Atlantic, you simply can’t miss the opportunity to celebrate the American Independence Day. Lauwarm Carlsberg and Vodka Ahoi’s, the standard liquids alongside water in Camp Vienna United the last few days, were handed out for free while Dave was giving his Independence Day speech on how to make “Roskilde great again” (yeah, I also find it hard to see the connection to the Independence Day but it’s not on me to decide how Americans celebrate it) combined with yet another football reference to his hometown MSL team Orlando.
Germany have their dirndl’s and lederhosen’s, Sweden have their folk costumes (hilariously funny looking) but in America you rather chose what some people would say the “grandiose style” while others see it as atrociously bad taste. I would rather say that Dave was “a lovely looking dude”, and the fact that he wore the outfit the whole day and night, including in the mosh pit at the Nine Inch Nails concert, makes me believe that he will at least make the American Independence Day costume great again.
And it was hot, it was hot beyond tolerable and considering that I was still thinking of amputating my feet because of a very bad choice of shoes I needed a solution. What to do? Just walk barefoot and get new *f-word* blisters. In the end, Messed!Up’s photographer Martin and intern Dick couldn’t stand the whining and found a Vans store – new shoes and life turned to the bright side.
The heat also required some special solutions and volunteers armed with high pressure water hoses were sent out to shower people around the campsite. I was myself hunted down by a very young girl with a huge water gun but didn’t mind to cool down a bit before going to the first show of the night, Kakkmaddafakka.
Festival gigs
It was quite obvious that there was one show outcompeting all this first festival gig day. Eminem is too big to not mention and most people we spoke to before the doors opened were going to attend his show later in the evening – as it turned out together with at least 60 000 other people. However, Messed!Up is not really interested in Eminem and just passed by to listen to some songs about Slim Shady while having a temporary beer break.
The night started out with Norwegian Kakkmaddafakka and their crazy indiediscopop leading to a full house at the Avalon stage. Just like in Hamburg earlier this year it’s a high energy show creating waves among the teenagers in the audience – because young women and Kakkmaddafakka obviously have some special connection (as Axel explained in our interview earlier this year). However, three Kakkmaddafakka shows in one year may be too much and after six songs we advanced to the next stage, passing by a bar to pick up cold liquids to be able to stand the heat and to finally check out Slaves. And what a show!
Laurie and Isaac create a massive punk rock sound just by drums and distorted bass. And it’s a great show! It’s a two-piece parade in how to combine punk rock tunes blended with a football hooligan attitude – and we love it. It’s a well-known fact that Messed!Up’s editor is easily impressed by two-piece bands and Slaves are one of those bands that’ve earned their position high up in hierarchy of two-pieces on that list. Next time Slaves are in town, be there!
While Messed!Up’s photographer had an epiphany at the Clutch concert and DJ Pappaledig couldn’t stop talking about St. Vincent, everything from the Slaves gig to 00:30 was a warm-up to the Nine Inch Nails show. Since the first visit to a NIN show in 1993 they happened to end up on my gig radar at no less than eight times, and this year’s show was the fourth time at the Roskilde Festival.
Trent Reznor’s alter ego Nine Inch Nails have been the pioneering act in industrial rock music since the debut album “Pretty Hate Machine” was released – and bought! – in 1989. At the end of the 80s he revolutionized the sound of music by breaking the holy rule and mixed electronic sounds with heavy guitar riffs, cut and pasted together with noisy industrial sounds. Although Reznor put lots of effort in staying under the radar to not become a commercial rock act he failed completely and sold millions of albums already from the start. The last two years have seen releases of EP’s “Add Violence” and “Bad Witch” adding to the experimental side of his creations but that usually turns out to be commercially viable in the end anyway – although I’m sure he still tries to stay under the radar.
The show was an awesome explosion of major hits as “March Of The Pigs”, “Wish”, “The Hands That Feed” and “Gave Up”, just to mention a few. The combination of a very aggressive Trent Reznor and the world’s coolest guitarist Robin Finck creates an awesome visual impression which trickles down to the crowd and creates mosh pits in the front rows. Although I promised myself to never take part in a mosh pit again since I’ve done my mosh pit years, it was impossible not to join Camp Vienna’s young interns for a rowdy three-song set.
With closing numbers “Head Like A Hole” and “Hurt”, Nine Inch Nails put themselves in the top position on this year’s “Top10 Concerts” list. Let’s say there were some sore limbs this morning.
Messed!Up daily gig recommendations:
When Saints Go Machine: Arena Stage 16.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziiPG0eX38E[/embedyt]Chelsea Wolfe: Pavilion Stage 18.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgwcWia5Wqc[/embedyt]Interpol: Orange Stage 19.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MQx0SXLCcE[/embedyt](Thee) Oh Sees: Pavilion Stage 00.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV77jgo6LJI[/embedyt]Wilkinson: Apollo Stage 01.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC57j2OiUd0[/embedyt]Nephew: Orange Stage 01.00
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgI_8YiWL8[/embedyt]
